{"id":5590,"date":"2011-10-05T08:02:30","date_gmt":"2011-10-05T15:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=5590"},"modified":"2011-10-05T08:02:30","modified_gmt":"2011-10-05T15:02:30","slug":"a-case-of-the-human-condition-found-big-bucks-in-my-sock-drawer-lost-my-mother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/a-case-of-the-human-condition-found-big-bucks-in-my-sock-drawer-lost-my-mother\/","title":{"rendered":"Found: Big Bucks in My Sock Drawer. Lost: My Mother"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tinka<\/a>
Buried in the sandy soil along Lake Michigan. Lost — my mother. Photo by Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n

Wow. The other day I found four \u2013 count ’em four \u2013 brand new hundred-dollar bills in my sock drawer. They were tucked in an envelope with a note from my husband in bold red and green letters, \u201cMerry Christmas, Barbara.\u201d<\/p>\n

How in the world did that money get in my sock drawer?<\/p>\n

The bills were nice and crisp. Jon had obviously made a special trip to the bank to procure them for me.<\/p>\n

But I had to wonder, how long had that envelope full of cash been lying \u00a0in\u00a0that drawer? Since Christmas 2010?<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Lost — my mother. Found — money in my sock drawer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I had no memory of getting money for Christmas, let alone squirreling it away under my socks.<\/p>\n

I tried to visualize last Christmas, but I could pull up no memories. Christmas 2010 fell seven days after my mother died. My guess is, I was in no mood to celebrate my little cash windfall, let alone go out and spend it.<\/p>\n

I had to put it out of sight. There was too much joy in it.<\/p>\n

We buried my mother in Michigan last summer next to my father, my grandmother, my aunt, my grand-aunt and my great-grandmother. I cried when I left her there, buried in the sandy<\/a> soil along Lake Michigan.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s there. I\u2019m here. And I\u2019ve got $400 to spend.\u00a0When I\u2019m ready.<\/p>\n

Another story about grief: “My Mother’s Goneness<\/a>.”<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Tinka<\/a><\/p>\n

I just found four brand new hundred-dollar bills in my sock drawer. Where in the world did that money come from? Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,30],"tags":[103,187,34,595,383,596,55],"class_list":["post-5590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-case-of-the-human-condition","category-my-changing-family","tag-aging","tag-death","tag-dont-miss","tag-gravesite","tag-lake-michigan","tag-lost","tag-family-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}